04 November, 2011

Pierre Cointreau : death of a "Gentlemanager"

Credit : Maine-et-Loire Chamber of commerce and industry

It was said by local medias of Pierre Cointreau he looked like an English man. The church of Montreuil-sur-Loir where his funerals took place on Thursday had that touch too. The monument is erected on a little hill where the parishioners arrive by a path lined with lime trees and, with the difference of French churches, is simply circled by a lawn "brightened up" by a war monument. The weather under which all the relatives of the former chairman of Cointreau came to say goodbye had an English touch too : a drizzle under a grey and low sky.

Of course the church was too small to gather the public arrived from numerous places outside the Maine-et-Loire who share the same reverence in the defunct memory. The ceremony was, in keeping with Pierre Cointreau wishes : "sober and short", warned the priest who even respected the will of the deceased in a brief homily, preceded and followed by simple prayers and choir songs.

With Pierre Cointreau disappears for a while a entrepreneur who reached to keep his company strong links where the territory where it was created and to push it among the world spirits brands. Besides to his business, Pierre Cointreau had dedicated a part of his life to local responsabilities at the head of the Montreuil-sur-Loir city hall, Angers Chamber of commerce and industry, Angers Exhibitions Park and in social housing. He was 91 years old.